The Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan registered 11,379 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosed from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1991 in 536 hospitals throughout the country. This nationwide survey revealed the current status of HCC in Japan regarding the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, histopathological features, diagnosis, surgical and conservative treatments, and the outcome. The survival rates of the HCC patients who received hepatic resection, transarterial embolization (TAE), and percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) were also calculated based on follow-up from January I, 1987 to December 31, 1991. Three-year and 5-year survival rates of the patients who underwent hepatic resection were 57.5% and 40.8%, respectively, and those of TAE were 19.5% and 8.0%, respectively. Three-year survival rate of the patients with PEI was 53.2%.
Cox's multivariate analysis showed that significant prognostic variables after partial hepatectomy were serum a-fetoprotein level, tumor size, number of tumors, associated liver cirrhosis, age, surgical curability, and portal involvement.